For the vast majority of winter I get by perfectly fine without studs simply by having wide tires and running so low pressures that the gauge doesn't even register. However, there's that handful of trips, especially towards the end of the winter, that I could really use the extra grip you get with studded tires. I decided to continue on the custom / diy theme with my bike mods and used 13mm self-tapping screws instead of dedicated tire studs. It's ones with a wide, flat base but I'm still considering taping over them to protect the tubes.
This is the rear wheel, I think I'm only doing the outside row on the front. I only have about 25% of the knobs studded and the increase in grip is already immense.
wait so your tires look like they have stud holes but you used screws? Screws would be more expensive local or shipped to my area plus they damage the tire and potentially the tube if you use tubes. I used a small socket driver drilled out to the diameter of this tyoe of stud for mine
Box of 500 screws was 13 euros and I didn't need to wait for them to show up in the mail. I'm not worried about damage to the tire itself. How long the tube will last has me a bit concerned.
I guess things are just marked up a lot here. The thought of having to buy new tires if it were to fail has my arm hairs standing
I'm not the slightest worried about the tire itself. I can just take out the screws when summer comes and it's like they never were there. It's the sidewalls that give out on my tires, not the tread. I've got like 0.15 bars (2psi) pressure in them during the winter time which absolutely annihilates the sidewalls so I get about one year of use from the rear tire.